Sketching
by BFCAS
Summary: Beca always left assignments to the last 3am minute. Luckily this time she had Chloe to keep her company.


Have some Bechloe of the most wonderfully cheesy variety. It's just a quick oneshot that I couldn't get out of my head but hopefully you guys like it as much as I liked writing it. I'm happy to take any requests because I can't stop writing these two weirdos. Enjoy!

...

It was half eleven at night and Beca was up, sat at her desk trying futilely to finish a well overdue comparative literature paper, her eyes burning where she'd been sat in front of the screen for so long. It was already five days late and the only reason she'd got away with it is because her father was the professor. She'd used her best convincing skills but even his patience was wearing thin and he'd set her a 48 hour deadline- one that was swiftly approaching as the clock ticked on.

She backspaced yet another word before swiftly typing another six word phrase into the document, bringing her word count up to 26 words. Great, she thought, just under 1500 to go. And as she looked at the clock she realised she had a whopping eleven and a half hours to complete it. It's not her fault, she would've done it yesterday, really she would, but the Bellas had insisted on a movie night and sure Beca hated movies but she just couldn't miss it! So the paper had been left untouched and Beca now sat at her desk, glasses on, a four pack of Red Bull at her side and a plethora of snacks to fuel her throughout the inevitable all nighter she was going to have to pull.

She glanced over to Amy's bed, it unmade but empty, and was secretly glad that her roommate had decided to stay the night at one of her boyfriends (which one Beca didn't know). It wasn't that she didn't love Amy, because she absolutely did, but her sleep wrestling matches with imaginary crocodiles and her sleep talking where she agreed with her boyfriend(s) more than enthusiastically were quite effective in the way of distraction. Instead, the room was silent except for a playlist playing quietly through Beca's headphones, all instrumental tracks so Beca couldn't even be distracted by the lyrics.

She took in a long breath before steeling her gaze onto the blank word document in front of her, cracking her knuckles before she frantically began typing up the scrawled plan of ideas that she had jotted down in a pad of paper just left of the computer screen. She daren't look up at the screen, knowing the multitude of typos her fast typing fingers had created, instead keeping her eyes trained to the keyboard. A couple of times, her glasses slid down the bridge of her nose and her fingers flew quickly and clumsily to push them back up. She never really wore them unless she was concentrating on something for hours on end, meaning it was only really in private when she was lit by nothing but the glare of her computer screen at three am when her glasses were on. They were old round oversized tortoiseshell frames that she'd had since her sophomore year of high school, but they still did the job and she never wore them around people, so she stuck with them.

After an hour of painfully slowly typing up notes, Beca leant back against her chair, her back cracking noisily making her wince. She leant down and reached blindly for the bowl of popcorn she'd brought up, grabbing a handful of the salty food along with the first Red Bull of the night. She shovelled the snack into her mouth with her right hand, kernels landing over her keyboard, whilst her left hand cracked open the can of energy drink. As she chewed the popcorn, she checked the word count. 629 words. Beca let out a long sigh; she was only a third of the way through and she now had to bullshit all the extra padding after typing her (admittedly very sparse) plan into the document already. She took a long drink of the Red Bull, the toxic golden liquid burning her throat as it went down with it's sickly sweet flavour, before setting it down and beginning to type some grade-a bullshit into the document, glancing through the textbook and her notes every now and then just to check that it was at least factually accurate before she threw it into the essay.

She'd been going for about an hour and forty minutes, the clock ticking over to quarter past one, when she was interrupted. She hadn't noticed at first, deleting a whole section of rambling trash from the document (taking her word count back down to 628- wait, she'd lost words?! How was that even possible?!) as she chewed on a mouthful of cold pizza leftover from the Bellas pizza night earlier. She was just about to start typing again when she felt uneasy, like something was watching her. And as she looked up from her computer screen and into the darkness of the room, she realised why she should have felt that. At the top of the stairs, by the coffee table in the corner of the room, was a figure stood in the darkness. Beca nearly screamed, but settleed for a body jerk and a hand flying to her chest in shock, holding the scream in until it just came out as a muffled, "Jesus Christ…"

The figure moved forward into the light and the first thing Beca saw was red hair.

"Chloe? What the fuck are you doing standing in the dark like an axe murderer?!" Beca hissed, sliding her headphones off her ears and placing them haphazardly on the desk. Chloe clearly didn't care about Beca's comparing her to that of a crazed criminal, as she shrugged with a wide smile.

"Couldn't sleep. And I saw that you were online on Facebook like ten minutes ago, so…" She explained, her tone soft in case she woke any of the other Bellas in the house. Beca ran her eyes down Chloe's body as she stood a few feet away, seeing that she was wearing her usual sleep attire of just a baggy t shirt she'd bought once on a Bella road trip and nothing else. The t shirt came down to her mid thigh, but it was still enough to make Beca blush and turn back to face her screen. Not that Beca had any sort of feelings for her co-captain, none whatsoever.

"Well, I'm just doing this but I mean make yourself at home or whatever." Beca waved her hand in the general direction of her bed, scowling at the computer screen again instead of watching her friend cross the room over to her desk. She saw Chloe's hand reach across her line of sight and watched it from her peripheral vision as she took a handful of gummy worms from the dish that Beca kept stocked with the candy by her mixing equipment.

"Oh no, do please help yourself miss." Beca smirked up at Chloe, who just stuck her tongue out before popping a candy into her mouth. Chloe chewed for a second before she tilted her head with a smile.

"Didn't know you wore glasses Becs." She said, her eyes studying Beca's face and how the round frames sat on her pointed features delicately, making her seem years older. She watched Beca's eyes widen suddenly and then the glasses are gone, snatched off her face by fumbling hands.

"Oh, I, uh, don't usually. No, I don't, no." Beca stumbled over her words, a tinge of pink creeping across her cheeks as she stuffed the glasses under piles of paper, hiding the embarrassing frames from her friend. Chloe arched an eyebrow as she chewed on the sweet and watched Beca fluster. She swallowed before she laughed softly at her friend, who scowled back. Chloe reached out and ruffled the front of Beca's hair.

"You're cute." Chloe reassured Beca before snatching a can of Red Bull from the desk as well as a slice of pizza, Beca doing nothing to prevent the thievery but raise an eyebrow in slight annoyance. Chloe moved over to Amy's bed and it was only now that Beca saw the selection of things she had under her arm- well the arm that wasn't reaching across and snatching food from Beca's stash.

"What you got there?" Beca asked, turning back to the glare of the computer screen to type up a point she had just thought of, fingers typing quickly and eyes fixed to the screen. She heard Chloe put down the pile of things on the end of Amy's bed to get comfy but chose to finish her paragraph before turning her head to observe.

When she did turn her head to the left to look at Chloe again, Beca saw that Chloe had leant against the wall, knees drawn up and a large pad of paper propped against them. Chloe was sharpening a pencil and brushing the pad clean, stopping only briefly to click on the light by Amy's bed.

"Chlo?" Beca prompted, seeing as she still hadn't had a reply from her previous question. Chloe looked up at the sound of her name, humming a 'huh' of acknowledgement, prompting Beca to ask her again as she clearly hadn't been listening the first time.

"What you doing?" Beca's hands dropped to her lap after vaguely gesturing to Chloe's set up.

"Oh, sorry, is the light too bright? Am I okay? I'm not being too annoying am I?" Chloe quirked her lower lip in worry, already beginning to shuffle herself around in fear that she had intruded and overstepped the mark of Beca's concentration. She was cut off by Beca waving a hand towards her.

"No, no, you're fine, don't worry. I was just wondering what you were doing?" She pointed to the pad of paper propped up on Chloe's knees. "Is that a sketchpad?" She asked with a look of genuine curiosity. She didn't know that Chloe could draw, let alone that she liked doing at ridiculous o clock in the half light.

Chloe smiled sheepishly, shrugging her shoulders as she placed the sharpener she had finished with on the bedspread next to her with her can of drink.

"Yeah, it is. I'm not great though, just a hobby." Chloe answered, shuffling back so she was comfortable before finally putting her pencil to the paper. Beca watched her for a second, hands still resting on the keys of her keyboard.

"I'm sure you're amazing. I'll finish this and then if it's cool I'd love to have a look?" Beca pointed at the screen without taking her eyes off Chloe, who looked up from the pad. She seemed to consider the request for a moment before she nodded with a small smile.

"Cool." Beca smiled back, turning back in her chair when she realised they were just staring at each other. She unplugged her headphones and set the levels so her study playlist of instrumental music played just low enough that the two girls could hear it but it wouldn't disturb their sleeping housemates in the floors below.

And then there was nothing filling the room except the music, the sounds of typing and scratching of pencil against paper. Occasionally Beca would murmur as she read a sentence out loud, leaning on her elbows with her hands framing her face to get closer to the computer screen so she could read it without squinting too much.

After a half hour or so, Beca sat back and finished the last mouthful of her can of Red Bull, throwing the can in the wastepaper basket by her desk afterwards. She checked the word count on screen; 987 words down and it was only 02:05. She could do this, she was two thirds of the way though and had 8 hours to do the rest, with snacks and the company of her best friend. Piece of cake.

The only obstacle she faced though was the oncoming headache she could feel from straining her eyes too much. She knew that wearing her glasses would solve the problem but they were so embarrassing that Beca almost thought it was worth the headache to keep them off. But then she glanced sideways and noticed that Chloe wasn't even looking at her, her attention firmly focused on the pad in front of her if the way she was concentrating was anything to go by. The tip of her tongue poked out as she concentrated and Beca smiled fondly at the sight of her best friend sat in her pyjamas looking so adorable.

She watched as Chloe's hand followed an arc of smooth pencil across the page and then returned to shade a section on the left hand side. She tilted her head to the side as she did so, her hair falling across her shoulder. Beca didn't even realise that she was still staring until Chloe's eyes flickered up and looked at her friend from over the top of the pad.

"You okay?" Chloe asked, brow furrowed in worry at the way Beca was staring so intently. Beca shook her head slightly, her body animating with it as she twisted in her chair so she was facing back at her computer screen. She grabbed a handful of gummy worms before tossing a few in her mouth just to occupy herself.

"I'm good. Just sick of reading this. It's giving me a bitch of a headache." Beca spoke through a mouthful of candy as she gestured to the paper on the screen. She turned her head back to look at Chloe, who had dropped her hand away from the pad and was looking back at Beca intently.

"What?" Beca asked dumbly, staring at Chloe with a confused look as the redhead's eyes scanned over her face and body. Chloe took a last look at Beca's hands before her eyes came back up to meet Beca's, the usual electric blue dulled in the half light of the bedroom.

"Nothing." Chloe brushed off before moving her hand quickly back to a section of the page. "Why don't you put your glasses on?" She suggested without taking her eyes from the small portion of drawing she was working on. Beca grimaced, knowing that she probably should. But they were just so embarrassing to wear in front of anyone, let alone her best friend who she was kind of crushing on. (Or totally in unrequited love with, whatever you wanted to call it.)

"Promise you won't laugh?" Beca asked pointedly as she moved the stacks of paper from the tortoiseshell frames and picked them up in preparation. Chloe lifted her free hand in the air, holding her middle three fingers up, not taking her eyes from the page.

"Scout's honour." Chloe said earnestly, her eyes looking up to Beca who was holding the frames in her lap. Beca grumbled an 'okay' before she quickly slid the oversized frames onto her nose, turning away to avoid her friend's gaze in embarrassment.

The relief was instant as she looked back at the computer screen, the words clearer again and the strain in her eyes dissipating thanks to the lenses. Suddenly, the option of working without them became very unappealing, even if they were slightly embarrassing. She would just continue working and avoid Chloe's eye, dealing with the teasing after she had finished this god damn paper.

And so she cracked on, her eyes scanning over what she had written and her hands typing in any more information she could think of for another hour or so. The music still softly played through the room and the girls still sat in companionable silence, focused on their respective activities until the clock ticked over to 03:00.

Beca sat back from her screen then, the word count glaring proudly at 1311. Just a nice bullshit conclusion to round it off and she could send it off knowing that she had escaped her father's stern glare for another week. That knowledge filled her fatigued mind with a spark of determination and she began to type wildly, checking her textbook for the dumb quote she was using to end the paper.

"And that is why my argument, in terms of Dickens, would be just as valid in both eras." Beca tacked out onto the keyboard, fighting all her instincts to add on a 'Bitch." to the end of her argument in some sort of victory, knowing that the paper although going to her father would be marked by a higher authority.

"And we are…" She pressed send on the email, the signature swish sound signifying it had sent. "Done. Fuck yeah." Beca span her chair round to Chloe, stretching all her limbs out akin to a cat when it woke from a long nap.

"Nice." Chloe congratulated her, not looking up from a particular section of whatever she was drawing. She had changed position over the course of the few hours she had been sat on Amy's bed. She was lying on her side, the pad of paper propped up against a pillow. She had one hand propping up her head underneath her chin and her pencil in her other, shading a large area of whatever was on the page.

Seeing as Chloe seemingly hadn't clocked that Beca had turned to face her, too focused on the drawing in front of her, Beca took the opportunity to simply look at Chloe. From her red hair that she had thrown over one shoulder to the way her white t shirt had pulled down slightly where she was lying, shadows playing across the material and dipping into her exposed collarbone, to the long bare legs that were stretched out on the bed right down to the freshly painted blue toenails.

Screw whatever what was on that pad, Beca thought, Chloe Beale was the real artwork in the room.

Her own cheesy monologue made her blush and she shook her head as she stood from the chair, taking another opportunity to stretch with her arms above her head before walking quietly over to Amy's bed, the older girl not taking her eyes from the pad of paper.

"Shuffle up." Beca tapped at Chloe's feet, wanting her to move so she could sit next to her, which she did, spinning around until she was sat cross legged with the pad of paper sat on her lap. Beca sat down, shuffling until she was shoulder to shoulder with Chloe, peering over in an attempt to see what Chloe had been drawing for the past few hours. As a reflex, Chloe pressed the pad to her chest protectively, shielding the drawing from view.

"Sorry." Beca apologised as she leant away, feeling rude that she hadn't even asked before snooping. She didn't take her eyes from Chloe's face though, watching as she quirked her lip in thought before glancing down at the pad in her lap.

"You can't laugh. They're not good." Chloe shrugged, not looking at Beca.

"I won't, I promise. C'mon lemme see!" Beca held out her grabbing hands with a smile on her face, making Chloe look at her incredulously because no-one had ever been this interested in her artwork before. She flipped the pad to the beginning and handing it gingerly over to Beca who snatched it excitedly, shuffling so she was sat against the wall and the pad rested on her knees like how Chloe had sat when she had started hours ago. Chloe shuffled back too, her shoulder pressed firmly against Beca's as she leant into her friend so she could monitor what drawings she was looking at.

Beca flipped onto the first page, her shoulders slumped and her mouth fell agape slightly.

The page was filled with a pencil drawing of Billie, Chloe's dog back from Florida. And it was incredible. Like, insanely detailed and sketchy in all the right places and wow, she was good.

"Chlo, this is amazing." Beca breathed as she studied the details of the drawing up close. Chloe blushed and shrugged her shoulders, jostling Beca slightly with the movement.

"Thanks." She muttered embarrassingly as Beca turned the page carefully.

There were pages and pages of pencil drawings, each one better than the last, Beca thought. There were sketches of sunsets, small doodles of leaves or rough drawings of people on the bus. On the tenth page or so in, there was a hyper realistic full colour picture of the Bella scarf lying atop the piano keys in the rehearsal hall. Beca had stared at that one for a while, just in awe of the sheer talent and dedication drawn onto one sheet of paper, until Chloe had told her to stop looking because she hated that one. ("The patterns are all off and the colours are too bright and there's no F sharp on the piano and-" "Chloe, stop. It's incredible, you weirdo.")

Beca flipped through a few more pages, pausing to admire each one as Chloe rest her head on her shoulder and just let Beca look uninterrupted. The music was still playing softly and was only interrupted by the rustling of paper and the occasional compliment from Beca.

About a third of the way through, there was a full page sketch of Jessica, Ashley and Stacie sat in the back garden of the Bella house. And just like everything else, it was amazing. Beca smiled at it, tracing the outline of their friends on the page before she slumped slightly further down so she could rest her head atop Chloe's.

There were more portraits as the book went on. Of Aubrey and her parents and Tom and various Bellas. All incredible, obviously. But Beca couldn't help but feel selfishly disappointed as there were no signs of her in the book. But then again, why would there be? She wasn't anything special, not worth the time and effort of a drawing, especially not one as beautiful as what Chloe was apparently capable of making.

Beca swallowed her disappointment and turned the page again, just managing to catch a glimpse of a handful of sketches on the page before Chloe sat bolt upright, making her jump and look at her.

"Okay, that's enough!" Chloe hurried, reaching for the pad of paper. But Beca was too quick, maybe something to do with the three cans of energy drink coursing through her blood, and held the pad out of arms reach with one hand and held Chloe back with the other.

"No, it's not, I've still got like half to go!" Beca protested, stretching her arms either way to further the distance between Chloe's fingers and the paper.

"No you don't!"

"Yes I do. Now just let me look or I'll sit on you." Beca grinned, making Chloe laugh and scowl unconvincingly at her. Beca stared back in equal force, an eyebrow raised in challenge. Chloe sighed, relaxing and slumping back to her original position, arms crossed in disdain.

"Fine. But you promised you wouldn't laugh." Chloe reminded her with a stern look. Beca rolled her eyes with a laugh, holding up three fingers, mirroring Chloe earlier.

"Scout's honour. Now if you don't mind, I have art to peruse." Beca grinned in triumph before settling back down against the wall and finding her page again.

The grin was promptly wiped from her face when she looked upon the page though.

The page was filled with lots of small sketches. There was an ear studded with five piercings drawn in incredible detail, a close up of an eye framed by a liberal coating of eyeliner, a pair of hands lying atop a mixing desk and a wrist tattooed with a pair of headphones amongst many other smaller rougher sketches.

The intricate details of Beca Mitchell.

Beca's heart was in her throat as her eyes scanned over the page. She didn't know if she should smile or cry, just so honoured to be drawn in such a flattering light let alone to be studied and put to paper by the girl she loved. She couldn't stop her fingers shaking as she turned the page, nor prevent the small breathy laugh of disbelief that escaped her lips at the next drawing.

It was a beautifully detailed picture of herself sat curled up on the sofa downstairs. She was just watching television but the way that Chloe had captured it had made it seem like the most amazing masterpiece ever to exist. She hadn't even noticed the older girl drawing her but from the portrait on the page it had clearly been a while they had sat together. Knowing herself, she had probably fallen asleep and been completely oblivious.

The next page was more close up details, the grasshopper tattoo on her arm taking up the majority of the page, the rest of her tattoos dotted about the page haphazardly, like Chloe had doodled them in a schoolbook when she was bored in class. Doodled meaning drawn beautifully obviously.

As Beca flipped through the pages, feeling Chloe staring at the side of face throughout, she had to fight back tears as each new page revealed more and more drawings of herself. Each one was incredible and it was obvious that Chloe had spent hours upon hours pouring her soul into the pencil studies of her best friend.

Eventually, Beca came to the end, the last drawing a full page pencil study of Beca sat at her desk trying futilely to finish a well overdue comparative literature paper.

She let out a breath she didn't realise she was holding before closing the pad and moving it to the side to sit on the bedspread. She could still feel Chloe staring.

"Don't laugh." Chloe murmured before she could say anything. Beca frowned, turning her head to look at her best friend. Chloe had a look of genuine fear in her face in anticipation of Beca's reaction, her cheeks smattered with pink in embarrassment already.

"Why would I laugh? They're…" Beca tried to search for a word better than perfect. "They're yours." There it was.

"I promise I'm not a stalker. You just have a very interesting face to draw. Well, not that I've drawn your face per se. I don't know, maybe it's the tattoos giving the illusion of art that makes me drawn to you or the way you stay still for long periods of time or-" Chloe rambled before Beca cut her off with a laugh.

"I don't feel stalked." Beca smiled, looking down to watch how Chloe's thumbs were twiddling in her lap. "Maybe slightly offended at the staying still comment, but mostly I feel flattered." Beca looked up to Chloe's eyes, finding the fear gone and replaced with something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"No one's ever bothered to even take a photo of me, let alone take the time to draw me." Beca nudged Chloe, trying to inject some more light heartedness into the intense atmosphere of the room. Chloe shook her head at the comment.

"They should." She murmured, her gaze flickering across Beca's face before settling on her eyes. "You're beautiful Beca Mitchell." Chloe smiled softly.

Beca's heart pretty much flatlined at that. Hearing those words come from the lips she had wanted nothing more than to kiss for the last year or so, in the silence and seclusion of her bedroom even as she sat in pyjamas, no makeup and with her ridiculous glasses still perched on her face. Yep, Chloe may not have meant to but she pretty much injected the final burst of energy Beca could fit into her already caffeine fuelled veins and a surge of determination overcame her.

Beca leaned forwards and pressed her lips to Chloe's. It was clumsy and Beca had to retract slightly just to readjust the wonky angle but then Chloe was bringing a hand to rest on Beca's cheek and kissing back and Beca's hand was in Chloe's hair and she was sighing into her mouth as their lips moved together lazily. It was months of mutual love and adoration pouring into the kiss and both girls couldn't help but smile into the kiss as they pulled each other closer.

Eventually, Beca ran out of air and pulled away slightly, resting her forehead against Chloe's until she realised that her glasses were pressing awkwardly into the bridge of Chloe's nose. She retracted, mumbling an embarrassed apology as she pushed the glasses back up her nose, Chloe giggling as she did so. Their hands stayed held together, resting on Chloe's bare knee though.

"I've wanted to do that for ages." Beca confessed, her thumb grazing over Chloe's.

"Me too." Chloe nodded with a wide, beaming smile that Beca couldn't help but mirror. The two girls just looked at each other, their hands intertwined between them as they sat in silence, not needing words to know what the other was thinking- namely that they had finally kissed the love of their life and they were happy to just let that sink in.

After a while, Chloe turned Beca's hand over to trace the headphone tattoo on her wrist, dropping her eyes to where her fingers were following the bold outline before she spoke.

"Hey, are you tired?" Chloe asked, not seeing Beca shake her head.

"No, I've still got energy drink and gummy worms making up 80% of my bloodstream. Are you?" Beca responded, watching Chloe's fingers on her wrist and trying her hardest to keep her heart under control in fear that Chloe would feel her racing pulse.

Chloe shook her head. "No."

She looked up, her fingers stroking up and down the length of Beca's forearm as she looked into her eyes. "Can I draw you?" She asked quietly.

"You just drew me then?" Beca gestured to the desk where was sat at in the last drawing in Chloe's sketchbook. Chloe laughed and shrugged.

"I know. I meant your face. I haven't drawn a proper portrait of you and I kind of want to remember this moment." She murmured, looking at Beca's lips as she spoke. Her eyes widened suddenly as she realised what she had asked. "Or not. I get it if you don't want to because it's kind of lame and it's late and I-"

She was stopped by Beca holding out her sketchbook.

"I'd love that." Beca nodded. And Chloe couldn't help but lean in slightly further and press a soft lingering kiss to Beca's lips as she took the book. She pulled away and Beca smiled at the dazed look painted across her features, like she wasn't expecting Beca to kiss back quite so willingly. God she loved her.

The two girls shuffled until they were sat facing each other and Chloe turned to the next blank page in her pad, brushing the paper clean and picking up her pencil. Beca rearranged her hair and slid the glasses from her face, folding them up and putting them in her lap.

"Hey, no, leave them on." Chloe instructed, her face confused as to why Beca had taken them off. When Beca tilted her head in question, Chloe smiled. "I like them. They make you look cute."

Beca tried her best to look grumpy at being called cute but couldn't help but blush and smile at the affection from Chloe. That didn't stop her grumbling slightly as she slid the oversized frames back onto her face.

Chloe thanked her silently by leaning forward and pressing a kiss to Beca's pouting lips, leaving a smile behind that she quickly went about putting to paper.

And that was where they stayed until the early hours of the morning, until Chloe and Beca eventually fell asleep atop the duvet on Amy's bed, leaving the Australian to discover them hours later entangled in each other, a half finished portrait of a smiling Beca laying between them and a whole plethora of questions for the Bellas to bombard them with when they eventually awoke.


End file.
